Could James Byrd killer on Death Row get a new trial?

Sarah Moor, Beaumont Enterprise

By Sarah Moore

Updated 9:35 am, Monday, February 24, 2014

Accused murderer John William King is escorted from the Jasper County Courthouse Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1999, in Jasper, Texas. A jury was selected in King's trial Wednesday. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday, Feb. 16. King is on trial for capital murder in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. Enterprise file photo
Photo: DAVID J. PHILLIP, STF

Accused murderer John William King is escorted from the Jasper...

Lawrence Russell Brewer, back left, and John William King, right, are taken from the Aubrey Cole Law Enforcement Center in Jasper to appear before the district attorney at the Jasper County Courthouse on June 9, 1998. Brewer, King and a third defendant were later convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. Enterprise file photo
Photo: File

The appeals battle is being fought in hundreds of pages of legal documents that have been filed in the Eastern District of Texas. The case currently awaits a ruling from Judge Richard Schell on habeas corpus and discovery issues.

In a filing Oct. 28, 2013, King's appeal lawyer, California-based lawyer Allen Richard Ellis, raised a number of claims he said were not brought up at King's trial, including evidence he wasn't at the scene of the crime, that sandals stained with Byrd's blood weren't his, and that he didn't intend to start a racist group in Jasper.

"Had Mr. King's jury been presented with this evidence, there would be little doubt that Mr. King would not have been convicted of capital murder and given the death sentence," Ellis said in a court document.

"Indeed, all of the plausible evidence/innuendo identified by King was, in fact, before the jury. The jury simply chose not to credit it," stated a court document filed by Ed Marshall, a lawyer who is fighting King's appeals on behalf of the Texas Attorney General's Office.

Should Schell find in King's favor, he could send the case back to a state trial court for either the sentencing phase of the trial or to start over from the beginning.

Marshal said the reason the appeals process has dragged on is in part because the new claims raised by King kicked the case back to the state court for review, which partially explains why King is still midway through the death penalty appeals process more than two years after his codefendant's execution.

"With death penalty cases, it's hard to tell sometime how long they're going to take," Marshall said. "So much depends on how aggressive the (defense) lawyer is, and how the judge handles his docket."